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13
Jan
Blogger criticises council's 'lowest possible standards' for cyclists getting to Harrogate Tesco
A Harrogate cycling blogger has claimed the town’s new Tesco is too dangerous for most cyclists living nearby to visit.
The supermarket opened last month (December) in New Park, close to the junction of the A59 Skipton Road and the A61 Ripon Road.
Thousands of people live close by, and many more new homes are planned alongside Skipton Road heading out of town.
But the author of the Hedgehog Cycling blog said it was unlikely many of them would choose to cycle to Tesco, despite it having ample covered cycle parking, because of North Yorkshire Council’s inadequate active travel arrangements.
In a video of him cycling to and from the site, which you can watch here, the unnamed blogger says:
If they (residents) were linked up by cycle facilities, preferably good quality cycle facilities to Tesco and to Oak Beck Park and the Aldi then they would have a choice about whether to cycle or whether to walk or drive. But they haven’t got a choice because all we’ve got is a hostile main road which severs the housing development and the nearest local shops.
There’s two problems with what North Yorkshire have done here. They’ve built bits of shared use to the lowest possible standards but worse than that they have built some shared use paths that don’t go anywhere.
He accused the council of ignoring national cycle infrastructure design guidance that tells local authorities to avoid shared use routes in urban areas.
The blogger added the council had also flouted a section of the guidance, known as LTN 1/20, that tells councils not to make cycle routes give way at every side road, as occurs near Tesco.
He said:
“With all the highly qualified and well-paid people at the council and the developers, it seems extraordinary that time and again they fail to make sensible arrangements for cycling. But in North Yorkshire they do fail, every time. Who at the council is supposed to be putting in place a sensible plan? The cycle parking at Tesco is OK – but most people can’t get to it.”
Safety audit undertaken
Asked to respond to the blog, the council did not provide a comment but instead replied with what it described as “factual information”, which quoted part of LTN 1/20.
It said:
LTN 1/20 is a guidance note provided by central government for local authorities to use when planning cycle infrastructure. The existing built environment always comes with its constraints and schemes must make the best provision possible within an urban setting.
Shared routes for pedestrians and cyclists are acceptable as per LTN1/20 where there are up to 300 pedestrians per hour, which applies to the circumstances at the Tesco roundabout.
A Stage 2 road safety audit was undertaken at the detailed design stage which did not identify any safety concerns regarding the shared use route or lack of cycle priority across side road junctions.
A post-completion Stage 3 road safety audit was carried out in December, and we are currently awaiting the recommendations.
The blogger replied: “They don't know what LTN 1/20 says. It does not approve of shared use up to 300 pedestrians an hour.”
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